The Best Way to Creating the Illusion of a Living World - Top GM Tips

so you've got your fantastic campaign running along you've got your npcs you've got your players invested in the story that's all good and well but how do you make your world feel as if it's continuing on in the background how do you make it feel as if your world is a living space rather than just a location that comes to life when the pcs walk in and then dies when the pcs leave how do you do it well this is how i do it hello and welcome to this week's video welcome welcome to this week's video this is a channel that is run by a crazy man and me actually and my name is guy and we're going to be talking about how to make it feel as if your world is continuing to progress and change in the background whilst your players are doing whatever it is that their pcs are doing how do you do it well from my perspective it boils down to not trying to keep track of every kingdom and every villain in your in your entire world or universe it comes down to making it feel like that's working and that those things are happening and you can do that by planning ahead by just answering a few questions so these are the questions that i or not even questions these are the things that i then jot down before a campaign starts or even whilst the campaign is going i might say oh that's a that's something that i didn't think about let me add that to the list and then what i do at the end of each adventure is i then trigger one of these things and so this is what i do so very step number one is i plan out a series of events that are going to cause increased tension in the world space or in the continental space because who cares what's happening on the other side of the planet well you might you might want to go that big so that's fine but we're talking about how to make it work for your players unless there's going to be major repercussions of a volcano happening on the other side of the world your players are not going to know about it it could be something useful for you to track however you want to do it whether it's on a global scale or a galactic scale it doesn't really matter because what you're going to be doing is going to be plotting out the following things you're going to plan out at least at least two revolutions not of the planet around the sun two revolutions where peasants revolt against the ruling monarchy now it should make sense uh our elvish peasants going to revolt against the elvish nobility if you've established that the elves are all content and happy what would cause that now that is an entire another series of questions and campaign possibilities that you have just set in front of yourself why would the elves suddenly go into revolution what would cause them what would instigate them is it some kind of spell some kind of nonetheless so you plot out two revolutions and when i say plot out you just write revolution and then choose the races where this revolution is going to happen this is the fun part especially if you do it before your campaign starts because it's a case of saying okay well i have my world map um i think that race and that race should go into a revolution they should have some kind of rebellion going on there should be some something that that happens why well we're going to come to that in a little bit now you're not going to trigger these at exactly the same time that's the other key thing after each adventure concludes you're going to come to your table of world events and we're going to have a few a whole bunch more by the way you're gonna come to that table you're gonna randomly roll to see what happens and you're gonna see a little bit that it's not always cataclysmic so revolution plan out two revolutions plan out two birth of a nations so what this means is is that maybe in the jungles or somewhere on your map what once were disparate hunter-gatherers have gathered together or perhaps it's the barbarians in the north who were all separate clans but now they've come together under a single united banner and they're going to be in they don't necessarily have to invade other countries but they are now a force to be reckoned with what does this have to do with the players wait wait until the end of the video we're getting there we're getting there so birth of a nation plan out at least two birth births births of a fit of a nation of a nation yeah two births of nation i plan out two things where nations suddenly form out of nowhere then we get to natural disaster now there are lots of natural disasters you can have volcanic disasters you can have flooding disasters you can have and this is if you know fantasy world magical disasters where magic suddenly doesn't work or divine absence where the pr the the gods have just suddenly stopped providing divine power um you can have tsunamis you can have earthquakes you can have chasms forming you can have an asteroid slamming into the planet the list goes on and on and on and on i would suggest that you have maybe three of those up your sleeve but not a lot because these are very very dramatic events which of the pcs are nearby could either kill them or could change the course of your campaign altogether so be a little bit cautious with national natural disasters you know what's wrong with me today a little bit cautious with natural disasters because they can get out of hand especially the pieces of there okay so we're talking natural disasters magical calamities have a cup of your sleeve and then finally death of an important figure this is something that should be again we're talking on the world changing scale here so if it's the death of the elvish king or if it's the death of a dragon all those kinds of things have a couple in your pocket so i would literally list death of king and then randomly from your map go that one what it's going to be doing by the way is that this is also going to be helping you create world building because you now know that if the death if the king of the dwarves is going to die potentially throughout the campaign well then the pc should know in some way the dwarvish king and if the pcs ever come across the dwarvish king you then know as a player to go as a player as a gm to then go okay i want my players to really like this dwarvish king because he gonna die and when he dies i want them to be there i want them to be present next up we plan a series of mundane events as well because not every event that occurs is going to change the world if the lizard folk go through a small financial instability on the other side of the world the pcs are really not going to care and neither should you remember we're trying to make the world feel as if it is alive we're not actually making a living world we don't need to go into that kind of detail so mundane things tax increases the pcs arrive in town and there's a sword tax that's now been introduced a sword tax but we were here last week uh i know but his lordship proclaimed it just yesterday if you're carrying any kind of bladed weapon and you want to walk around inside the town i'm afraid it's going to cost you somewhere in the region of three silver pieces per day that you're here how long are you here for sir if you hit it if you bring in a tax you're like taxes are so boring yes they are but they do cause tension because they lead to potential plots why is the king now raising taxes on swords or on wagon wheels that was another time of attacks that existed in the medieval period or on windows for example why is this tax being introduced well because on your main chart this kingdom happens to be slated to go to war at some point because maybe you've got that on your your major calamity list of of war they need the money to pay for the war but all of this kind of stuff is stuff that the pcs don't necessarily know about except when they then go to the guard and they say why is the lord raising attacks you now have the most amazing piece of world building in your pocket because you know that this kingdom if you roll will eventually go to war and so it's an easy case of saying well rumor has it don't tell anyone but we might be going to war yeah that's right why are you going to war well you didn't roll why they're going to war on your chart but you're the gm so now you make up well it's a political thing and the pcs might be able to get involved they might be able to intercede and just adventures just burst out of doing this particular method it's it's it's really useful for doing that kind of thing it gives you npc dialogue it gives you all sorts of plot hooks that you didn't even plan on having it's it's it's good all right so tax increases legislation changes oh you're a mage oh okay you need to get a new brand yeah all majors are to be branded on the forward with an l um because that indicates learned yeah right uh legislation changes i know this sounds mundane but that's why it's called the mundane category and you go well maybe it doesn't even affect the piece maybe it doesn't but it is part of making your world feel as if it is living breathing and ticking over even though the pcs are not doing anything about it okay so legislation taxes um a new item is now available in market whereas previously you couldn't buy magical items now you can what caused that or previously you couldn't buy healing potions but now someone is selling healing potions um it could be we've opened up a new griffon transportation system brand new cutting latest technology you get on a griffin and provide you survive the ride you'll get to your destination which we're training them on where to go at the moment some some folks end up in the um mountains but we've learned where they go in the mountains so we've got a little hut there so you will be we will be rescued eventually um introduce something that's new and that's different evolve your world so that's something that you can add in um you can add in um a new food that's come in oh you've heard of this new stuff it's called coffee yeah it's called coffee ah hmm yeah it's pretty awful but it certainly keeps you awake and it's really great why would introducing you because that's what happens it's what happens we're going to get to the the consequences okay um a new guild could open up um yes we're now the guild of heroes and if you want to be a hero you have to pay a membership of 100 gold a month uh no we're going to fight that one well yeah good luck we are sanctioned by the king why are you sanctioned by the king oh we've heard rumor that we might be going to war yes all right fine jim we get it a war is coming and now we've got this big back up background that's going on but if they seem linked together it's because they are and the reason for that is because now you've got your mundane events you've got your your cataclysmic events or your world-changing events and i haven't given you the complete list by the way i mean war is another one famine drought uh well those are sort of natural disasters i guess um war peace is made between two warring factions that's another one don't forget peace is just as important an event if not more important than wars so and mundane there are so many things that could come through the flushing toilet was mundane at first until it became a class symbol if you had a flushing toilet you were considered to be very very well off if you had a flushing toilet inside a room even better and if it was within your actual house and you didn't have to walk out to the shed outs outside even better so it became a status symbol for for quite some time all right so what are we going to do with all of these things we've now got these cataclysmic events we've got these mundane events what are we going to be doing with them well now is where we start to look at the effects on the actual game and also how you're going to actually present it to your pcs because there's no point in going okay cool guys last session you guys all healed up you wake up inside the inn oh and by the way there's new tax legislation and you're going to get tax on your shoes another tax that does exist once um they're going to go what how do we know this oh yeah that's right you don't know it because your pcs don't know it because i haven't told them in the world that's the most important thing is when these events start happening your first pose of call the first way that the players should ever encounter these changes is through dialogue with the npcs and it can literally be if your players don't really engage with npcs very much as you're walking past a wagoneer and his son on way to market the son turns to the father and says i'm really excited about this new war that's coming up do you think i could be a soldier papa and the farmer going shut up we were going to be on the farm we got together and those you know moisture evaporators won't fix themselves and be quiet you can introduce it that way you can have the pcs actually asking questions but the npcs should be talking about it and if there's a tax legislation that comes in on iron the blacksmith when the pcs walk into the blacksmith i'm sorry fellows but um your sword repairs are going to cost you an extra 10 more we're all being hit hard by this new tax you get my you get my point what are the legal implications i know this sounds awfully administrative but this is the easiest way that i've found so far so once you've listed all of the events that you're going to have happen then next to each one of them you work through this little form and i'm going to put it in the doubly do below so you can actually follow through in terms of that um so what are the legal consequences there's a war starting is conscription a thing if it is a thing where you have to go and fight in the war if you're in that particular kingdom are the pcs going to want to do that or are they wanting to get away if the pcs want to get away by the way if they don't want to be involved or embroiled in whatever is happening within that country make sure that they can let them meet someone who goes yeah i can get you across the border they won't even know you were in this country um yeah you don't fight in the war who wants to fight in the bloody war it's going to cost you a couple bob per head but that's all right we'll get you across the border they won't even know it then as a matter of fact they'll probably think that you're the enemy so i just wouldn't come back into the kingdom until that was sort of simmered down you know what i mean [Music] so what are the legal consequences it could just be a tax if the if it's a taxes come in what are the legal complications if they don't pay the tax they get arrested and they have to spend the night in jail or the weapons get confiscated again it's just useful to have this as a framework because we're trying to make the world feel alive what are the financial inc implications oh the country's now at peace with this other country well that means the war efforts gonna wind down weaponry is gonna become dirt cheap as now there's a surplus of weapons that are going to be floating around but and we've got news you know all those soldiers will coming back so the fields are going to be bountiful so hopefully there's going to be a research in the economy things might get cheaper or there's no jobs there's no fields they all got destroyed during the war we're heading into uh famine and so now if you're coming into the country and you're selling items if it's not food people probably won't want to buy it but they'll be selling things incredibly cheaply if it's not food so there are major major implications with the finances what are the political consequences these are going to happen this is where most people focus their world building by the way is on the giant politics are happening around the pcs aren't going to care about that i'm talking more about the politics in terms of i'm a barkeep and now all of a sudden orcs are allowed to come into our city and they're allowed to stay and sleep in my tavern i'm not sure i'm comfortable with that you know they come in here all seven foot of them and they complain the beds are too short too short i say this is a halfling in you can't come in here as an orc but now they legally can so now i've got to try and extend the room just to fit them in let alone the bedding those are the political consequences that are being enforced on the log local small scale obviously the king and the queen well we've got peace now but we're going to starve we have to do something just look at all these adventures that just suddenly explode the pcs see a sign the king is looking for a marrow the king is looking for a particular type of marrow that will grow in battlefield soil very quickly and has a high nutritional content might not sound like an adventure to you but when the gnomish inventor who's grown the marrow the size of a building suddenly disappears well now there's a murder mystery or there's a giant angry undead squash or marrow wandering around eating all the cows or adventures just pop out okay so what are the political consequences then what are the religious consequences there's no such thing as a bigger pardon there's no such thing as aliens well except for those they're not really alien anymore because now we know who they are and they're very nice people what are the religious consequences to an event there's an earthquake and the priests have been claiming that there wouldn't be one do they now suddenly all get lynched for lying maybe there's an earthquake and they did predict it was going to be happening do they now get elevated to a theocracy and they get given control over the entire kingdom if the gods suddenly stop granting powers those priests are going to be trying to rally everyone to pray and to try and find out why the gods have abandoned them so there's a huge consequence there and then of course new npcs that arrive on the scene this is absolutely critical if your players are based in a small little village or in a little town and they're used to the blacksmith when they then arrive in town and the war is now over the blacksmith is no longer there he sold up sharp and now it's a dwarf who is no longer an enemy who's now running the smithy the dwarf has different demands different prices and different expectations from the from the pcs and they're going but what happened to our blacksmith the nice one we we liked her why are you now here um so what new npc's introduced and of course then finally in terms of all of these mundane changes i've been mentioning it throughout the video who is it for and who is it against who benefits and who loses so the king benefits he gets more tax in the people lose because they get taxed more there's a war coming all those kinds of wonderful things you need to look into those and and see so you take that list what are these consequences you then apply that to each of the different events that you've got plotted out now here is the beauty of it if you are plotting out that there will be war but you're going to randomly roll when you decide to go to war as to which countries are going to war once you've created this table you don't ever have to create it again it literally for every other campaign you do it's going to simply be this is my living world event list and the consequences that go with it so you can certainly do that and there you go folks that's how i do it that is how i run a living world in the background i've got these things going on you say okay cool while they're at war but now new npc arrives who's this new npc it could be a general who changes the tactics it could be a mundane peasant who has the visions of the future it it really is dependent upon you but by having these charts having these tables and going okay i'm gonna i'm gonna trigger one of these events randomly or consciously to happen where the pcs are the pcs are going to be going wow uh we went to war the kingdom has gone to war that's the new post we were in a cave for two weeks we come back and the kingdom has gone to war what the hell has been going on now it does require you to have a certain amount of mental agility to be able to go well this links to that to links to that things that and to be able to seed the fact that these things are coming up again having it before you start your campaign allows you to do that so when i say at the end of each adventure role for an outcome my ultimate suggestion would be roll for an outcome that will happen after this adventure that's coming up so in this adventure that's coming up you hint oh well you know um there's gonna be a natural disaster and it's gonna be earthquakes okay after this next adventure so while the pcs are on that adventure just randomly you can say oh there's a low rumbling that seems to be coming from the earth it lasts for a few moments and then stops mention that three times during the next adventure and when eventually the pcs go yay we've defeated the dragon okay cool we're heading back to town bang you slap in an earthquake and they go oh those were tremors we didn't know or you have a drow who is now on the surface who begs them for help because he got crushed whilst making his way to the surface because this the caves are moving the caves are moving don't talk nonsense silly drow stab stab stab what are your thoughts how do you world build in terms of this living component i'm not talking about the history i'm not talking about all that kind of wonderful stuff i'm talking about making it feel alive leave your comments down below this video was brought to you by world anvil from worldanville.com they are the best and for this xmas period this festive season if you use the code xmas great gm or down here if you use that code xmas great gm you will get 35 off an annual subscription to dungeon fog now that runs from the 25th of december until the 5th of january they've partnered with us and given us a special and massive discount 35 off my gosh now if you don't know what world anvil is i suggest you head on over to their website but effectively they are the ultimate space in which to create your world and adding in all of these different events that we've been speaking about in today's video would be a great place to track them to keep them and to reuse them from campaign to campaign so big thank you to world anvil and of course a big thank you to my wonderful wonderful patrons and to you for watching all the way through to the end of the video and i wish you and yours the very festive and happiest of seasons

Channel: How to be a Great GM

Views: 125,589

Keywords: creating the campaign, campaign creator, how to be a great game master, how to gm, great gm, campaign creation, dnd campaign, dnd campaign design, dnd campaign ideas, rpg campaign ideas, campaign design, running the game, game master guide, dungeon master guide, gm tips, dm tips, epic guide to creating campaigns, creating a real world, creating a living world, how to create a real world, how to create a living world, storytelling tips, how to make a world feel alive

Id: 6JP-nkeCwYg

Length: 23min 14sec (1394 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 25 2020